Another Long Update!

As I write this update, it is 77 degrees, sunny, and humid. I'm already loving Mississippi winters! I am sitting in a little coffee shop in Ocean Springs named "Coffee Fusion." It's the first internet place I have been able to find open in two days with the holidays and the fact that the "Deep South" seems to close down almost entirely on Sundays (except for big franchises)!

We had a fun New Year's Eve, spending the day on several jobs such as sheetrocking, mudding and taping. A team stayed at Linda's and another team starting working on the same kind of jobs in another house. Our final two teams were involved in yard clearing and a house mud out. I worked on the house, which was originally an amazingly beautiful mansion right on a little bay. The first floor was completely flooded and the water rising up from below made the floor cave in to the crawl space under the house. We spent the day in that space pulling out appliances, clothes, books, wigs, dishes, canned food, and everything you can imagine. 4 people even combined their strength to pull out a huge kayak full of water, which must have been blown in from the water and was wedged on the side farthest away from the bay. There were no owners at this house while we were working on it, but we learned from the neighbors that the original owners had already lost a house and a hotel to Hurricane Camille in the 60's and after this loss they decided to give up on hurricane country. We were cleaning out the house for the new owners, a young couple who bought it even though it was originally condemed by FEMA, but had gotten permission to rebuild.

New Year's Eve we spend touring Bellingrath Homes & Gardens (www.bellingrath.org) and then we went into Mobile, Alabama to watch the fireworks at midnight over Mobile Bay. Unfortunately, the fog was so thick that once the fireworks started to go off, all we could see was the fog changing from red to blue to green. At least we could say we had been to Alabama though, which made our trip an 8 state trip!

Yesterday (Sunday) we attended church at First Baptist and then we had some free time in the afternoon to do our laundry, make a Walmart run, and go out to eat at a Chinese buffet. We wanted to try some local food, but the locals all close on Sundays, so we didn't have too many options!

We also spend a couple of hours in the town of D'Iberville, which is a little suburb just north of Biloxi. D'Iberville was hit extremely hard by Katrina - most of the houses in the neighborhoods we drove and walked through had only the foundation left. We heard that the water had risen over the top of the electric poles, so every house was completely flooded. The people in this neighborhood lost just about everything they had. Luckily, some parts of D'Iberville were considered a flood plain, so many of the residents in the neighborhood we spoke to had flood insurance. However, nearby neighborhoods that were just as affected were considered outside of the flood plain, so many were not as fortunate.

We got to speak to several of the residents as we went from door to door (or rather trailer to trailer, since most people who are still there are now living in trailers that are set up on their lots) and offered people the blankets and pillows that we had collected. We also had several Christmas presents for children to hand out, but we quickly found out that there weren't many children left in the neighborhood. Many had been sent to live with relatives or in other places so that they could continue to go to school. Most people also had all the blankets they could fit in their little trailers, so we will take them to the distribution center tomorrow (where we have heard that there is a need for blankets) to hand out to people who are further along in the rebuilding stage and may need them for their new houses.

This morning our team broke up in two different groups, with half finishing a house in Ocean Springs and half working on cleaning up a yard in D'Iberville. We are cleaning up this yard (or maybe I should call it a lot - the house is gone, and we decided you probably need a house to call something a yard!) for a young couple we met yesterday as we were asking people about their needs in this neighborhood. The lot isn't really theirs, but for some reason they have not been able to get back on their land yet, so they are being allowed to use it to park their trailer on. They need to get it cleaned up quickly because they have two little daughters (a one year-old and a two year-old) who can't come outside until they clear the yard of all the glass and debris that is lying everywhere. Yesterday we say the little girls waving to us from the window of their trailer and we really want to give them a place to play!

This afternoon we hope to have time to head to Linda's and finish up the last coat of mudding and sanding, which will mean that her house is finished to the point of painting. It's great to know that we have helped bring her house this far! She stopped by the church this morning as well and we were able to give her lots of bedding, blankets, towels and even some pans to furnish her new house. Sometimes it can feel like the collective need is too great to do anything about, but when you are able to help just one or two people individually, it does feel like you can make a difference.

I think I have written enough - more soon and hopefully I will figure out our picture situation shortly as well. God bless and keep praying for us and for the people of the beautiful state of Mississippi!

(posted by Rebecca at 1:21 pm on 1/2/06)